


This Too Shall Pass

by runs_in_the_family



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Implied Past Harringrove, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Season 3 Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-07
Updated: 2019-07-07
Packaged: 2020-06-24 00:09:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 884
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19712332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/runs_in_the_family/pseuds/runs_in_the_family
Summary: Steve cries at night. Every night. And every night, someone comes to help.Season 3 spoilers.





	This Too Shall Pass

“Hey, pretty boy. What’s with the water works?”

Steve raised his head and stared across the room.

Beneath his window, a figure sat on the floor.

It was the middle of the night. He’d been laying in the dark for a while, telling himself that he’d fall asleep soon but never quite managing to get there. It was a scenario that had become familiar to him over the past few months. Just like the sight sitting beneath the window.

Dabbing at his cheeks, he sat up against his headboard and took in the blue eyes staring back at him, strangely clear through the darkness. He managed a little half smile.

“Don’t know.” He answered. “Just happens sometimes, you know?”

“What, still?” Billy’s smile was a little smug. “Shit, Harrington, I’m touched.”

Despite himself, Steve laughed slightly. 

Legs stretched out before him, Billy crossed his ankles and leaned back against the wall.

“So what were you thinking about that got you all worked up?”

Steve cleared the lump in his throat before he spoke.

“Nothing.” He shook his head. “But that’s when it happens, you know? When I got nothing else to think about. I’m lying here and my head’s blank and I just…”

He paused to clamp a bite down on the sudden shake in his lip. After a moment, he carried on, voice a little more strained.

“I don’t know, it’s like everything else is a distraction. Like, if I didn’t have all the other shit to focus on I’d just…be doing it all the fucking time or something.”

Blinking back a tear, Steve saw a soft smile edge onto Billy’s lips.

He’d seen that smile only once before the fourth of July, but almost every night since.

“Nah, you’d be alright.” Billy said, quietly. “You gotta keep this a secret, Harrington, but the whole world didn’t end just cause I croaked.”

Steve smiled through a tear.

“Could’a fooled me.”

As Billy stood up from the floor, the room filled with the creak and shuffle of leather and denim. He walked towards the bed and sat in the empty space next to Steve, filthy boots leaving no mark on the sheets.

If he tried hard enough, Steve was sure that he could pick up the smell of cigarettes.

“You know I’m sorry, right?” Steve asked.

“Yeah, I know.” Billy began idly playing with his lighter. “Gotta stop though. Didn’t do anything.”

“Yeah, that’s kinda the point.” Steve caught another wet track with the back of his hand. “Didn’t do anything.”

A flame leapt from the lighter, it’s burn slightly brighter than seemed natural. He watched Billy slowly run his fingers through it.

“What would you have done different, Harrington?”

Steve stared deep into the flame.

“Called you after. Or said a single fucking word to you. Not pretended like it didn’t happen. Like you didn’t exist.”

The lump, ever resilient, began to emerge again.

“Asked if you were as freaked out as I was. If you liked it as much as I did, thought about it as much.” He smiled. “If you wanted to do it again.”

Billy extinguished the flame with the pad of his thumb and slowly clicked the lighter shut.

Steve turned his gaze to him.

“Would’a told you that I wasn’t mad.” He shook his head. “That I was glad you told me.”

He held Billy’s gaze with stinging eyes and soaked in that soft, peaceful smile.

“Would’a told you how happy I was when you said it.”

Smile never faltering, Billy reached his hand up and held his palm against Steve’s cheek. If he shut his eyes, Steve could feel it.

“Told me that a hundred times, Harrington, think I don’t know by now?”

A wet laugh broke it’s way through the lump in Steve’s throat.

Slowly, he opened his eyes again.

“Never told him, though.”

Billy’s thumb brushed back and forth against his skin but Steve couldn’t feel it.

“He knows, too, pretty boy.” Billy let his hand drop to his lap.

“Promise?” 

He watched Billy’s small nod and couldn’t stop from smiling at the bounce in the curls.

“Cross my heart.”

They sat for a moment, Steve taking in every inch of the picture next to him. Eventually, Billy nudged him with his knee.

“You gotta sleep.”

Wiping his eyes of any remnants of a tear, Steve took a deep breath and nodded.

He eased himself back down beneath the covers, turning to rest his head against Billy’s thigh. When he shut his eyes, he could feel fingers running slowly through his hair.

“You know, one of these nights you’re gonna forget to cry.” The smile lingered in Billy’s voice. “Just gonna lie down after some party or something and you’re not even gonna know you shut your eyes before you’re gone.”

The fingers brushed gently at his temple.

“Then that’ll be it.” Billy hummed. “Just forget to be sad.”

Under the soft touch, Steve could feel himself start to drift. He curled in close until he was sure he could smell old leather.

“How long’ll it take?” He mumbled.

“Don’t know.” Billy said. “But don’t sweat it, pretty boy, I’ll be here ‘til it does.”

“’n after?” Steve managed, almost gone.

He was carried to sleep on the answer.

“I’ll be here then, too.”


End file.
